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Nintendo’s answer about the future of its mini game consoles will amaze you

If you can't
figure out what Nintendo's doing with its outrageously popular Classic Edition
game consoles, you're not alone< Owojela's Blog cares.

I'm as
baffled as you are.

To try to
clear things up, I asked Nintendo officials recently about the company's line
of miniature retro game machines, which includes the new $80 Super Nintendo
Entertainment System Classic Edition:

What's the
strategy with these devices? Will they be produced in limited quantities? Will
Nintendo continue to make them?

Their
answers, unfortunately, did little to clear things up.

"Clearly
(the Classic Edition line) is a part of our strategy," said Doug Bowser,
Nintendo of America's senior vice president of sales and marketing. "We've
seen the power of retro games and the affinity towards them. As we look
forward, we're looking at how we can mix that retro content that people love
and enjoy, but also new content that we're bringing to the market. So it's a
part of the plan."

Huh?

Even after
talking with Bowser and other company officials, I still have no idea what
Nintendo's strategy is with the Classic Edition devices. And I'm guessing most
people in the hunt for a SNES Classic this holiday season are in the same boat.

What's driving
this confusion and frustration is that the retro consoles have been really hard
to find.

When the
company launched the $60 Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition late
last year, the mini game machine sold out everywhere almost immediately. Consumers
were still looking all over for the gadget — and paying outrageous prices for
it on eBay — when Nintendo discontinued the NES Classic in April.

Last month,
the process seemed to repeat itself when the company released the SNES Classic.
People lined up overnight for the console, and it quickly sold out.

The line
outside of Best Buy on September 29, 2017 on 6th Avenue in New York City.

Simply put,
you can't just walk into a store and buy either of Nintendo's "Classic
Edition" mini consoles right now. And that situation — and Nintendo's
response to it so far — has left consumers wondering whether the company has
any intention of improving things.

Company
officials assured me Nintendo does, but said it's not as easy as it sounds.

"Obviously
we always want to meet the demand that's there," Bill Trinen, Nintendo of
America's senior product marketing manager, said this weekend. "But
sometimes the demand ends up being bigger than you expect."

Nintendo
fans are familiar with that response from the company. It's the same answer
Nintendo gave when the Wii was sold out everywhere. It's the same answer the
company gave when the Switch was in short supply. And it's the same answer
Nintendo gave when the NES Classic was impossible to find.

The answer
points to how terrible Nintendo seems to consistently be at forecasting sales
of its own products. But it does nothing to set consumer expectations. And
that's a particular problem when it comes to the Classic Edition line.

When
Nintendo launched the Wii and the Switch, consumers could be assured that the
company would produce the devices for the foreseeable future. Even if consumers
couldn't buy one of the game machines at launch, it just meant they would have
to wait until more were available. And more were certainly on the way.

But with the
NES and SNES Classic devices, Nintendo's offering confusion rather than
clarity. Originally, it only offered the NES Classic from November until April.
But recently the company announced it will resume production of the device
sometime next summer.

Meanwhile,
it's currently saying it will only produce the SNES Classic through "early
2018." If demand far outpaces supply for that device too, will it resume
production of it sometime soon thereafter also? Who knows?

Maybe
Nintendo worries that if it keeps devices such as the NES and SNES Classic in
production on an ongoing basis, consumers will be less likely to buy its newer
consoles (which often sell digital versions of the classic games on those retro
machines). Or maybe Nintendo would rather just focus its production efforts on
the Switch. Or maybe there's something else entirely going on.

It's just
not clear.

Usually a
company's business strategy wouldn't matter much to the average person. But in
the case of these Classic Edition consoles, Nintendo's lack of clarity leaves
everyday consumers in the lurch. Potential buyers have no idea whether they
need to buy one this year — and possibly pay premium money on reseller sites
like eBay to get one — or if they can afford to wait.

It makes for
a stressful situation for people who just want to buy the Classic Edition
consoles, and it risks sullying an otherwise wildly popular line products.

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